The FBI is looking into alleged insider trading in the options of ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co before its blockbuster acquisition last week by Warren Buffett and Brazil's 3G Capital. The SEC says traders in Switzerland used a Goldman Sachs account to trade on purported inside knowledge of the transaction.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc is to buy direct marketing toy and party supplies merchant Oriental Trading Co for $500 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing a person involved in the deal.
Walt Disney has agreed to buy filmmaker George Lucas's Lucasfilm Ltd and the "Star Wars" franchise for $4.05 billion in cash and stock, a blockbuster deal that adds one of the most beloved franchises in entertainment history to Disney's lineup.
Best Buy's founder said Monday that he wants to take the electronics retailer private by buying up all of its shares he doesn't already own in a deal that values the company at as much as $8.84 billion. The news sent Best Buy shares up 24 percent in premarket trading.
In Facebook's largest acquisition to date, the social media giant says it will spend $1 billion to buy the photo-sharing software company Instagram.
Apollo Global Management is shelling out $703 million for Great Wolf Resorts, the leading operator of indoor water park resorts. The $5-a-share offer is better than the stock has seen since 2008, but people who bought it around its 2004 IPO will end up taking a real bath.
Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, can go ahead with its 17 billion rand ($2.2 billion) purchase of a controlling share of a South African chain, a South African regulatory appeals body said Friday. The Competition Appeal Court upheld a ruling last year by the Competition Tribunal, the government agency charged with promoting competition and protecting consumers.
Google's shares have fallen 15% in the last three months while the S&P 500 has traded flat. This share price decline seems odd when contrasted with the spectacular success Google has been experiencing with its Android mobile OS. But there are good reasons Wall Street isn't impressed.
Diamond Foods is buying the Pringles brand of chips from Procter & Gamble for $1.5 billion. The deal is the latest -- and biggest -- of a stack of acquisitions for the maker of Emerald nuts and Pop Secret popcorn, making Diamond to the No. 2 snack company after PepsiCo's Frito-Lay.
Mergers and acquisitions are becoming ever more popular, with activity up 24% in the first two months of this year -- after already growing 23% in 2010. Here's how your portfolio can benefit from this trend.
The longtime coffee rivals may be discussing a merger that could provide the smaller player with a boost in the single-cup market. And Peet's, which has longstanding deals with grocery chains, could steer Starbucks towards a smoother grocery distribution strategy.
Motorola's sale of its network-equipment division to Nokia Siemens Networks seems to have hit another hiccup. Chinese telecom-equipment maker Huawei has won a preliminary U.S. court injunction against Motorola, a Huawei vendor, arguing that the deal would transfer confidential information to a competitor.
Nothing like a big media deal to spark commentary from the media. And indeed, there's been no shortage of reaction -- from praise to pillory -- to AOL's decision to purchase upstart news site The Huffington Post for $315 million, mostly in cash.
Citigroup has foreclosed on U.K.-based record label EMI Group, taking it back from private-equity firm Terra Firma, which bought EMI from Citigroup for a whopping $4.7 billion in 2007.
The European Commission on Wednesday approved Intel's $7.68 billion acquisition of security-software company McAfee. Regulators had been concerned that the deal would exclude competing software from working with Intel processors, but Intel agreed to maintain interoperability.
Companies such as Duke Energy and DuPont are off and running with megamergers early this year. Even Playboy is among the dealers. And market pros say the trend is far from over. Why are so many U.S. companies tying the knot? Fast growth is hard to come by in any other strategy.
Even after a round of acquisitions in 2010, some big tech companies are still rolling in cash -- and 2011 looks like another promising year for tech mergers. Here's columnist Peter Cohan's list of top tech acquisition targets for 2011.
Shares of Novartis soared higher on Wednesday, after the Swiss drug maker finally obtained the remaining outstanding shares of Alcon for $12.9 billion.
Companies have record amounts of cash to spend: $1.9 trillion. How can they put it to the best use to keep stock markets booming?
Groupon has turned down Google's acquisition offer of roughly $6 billion. It might be holding out for more money, but columnist Alex Salkever thinks it's more likely to be aiming for a big IPO. Here's why he believes its offering could launch a whole new wave of Internet IPOs.
After months of delays, the deal is done: An investment group called Filmyard Holdings is the proud new owner of the storied Miramax Films. The sale was announced back in June, but concerns about bank financing pushed the closing date back until now.
Google has bought speech-synthesis software maker Phonetic Arts and video-distribution technology firm Widevine Technologies, the company announced in blog posts Friday. These firms are the latest to be snapped up as Google continues to buy technology at a rapid pace.
Amazon.com is buying Quidsi, the parent company of online diaper and soap retailers Diapers.com and Soap.com, for $500 million in cash and $45 million in debt. Will the deal help Amazon grow its sales beyond books, CDs and DVDs?
Private equity giant Carlyle Group acquired mobile service provider Syniverse Technologies (SVR) in a $2.6 billion deal late Thursday, its second telecommunications buyout this week. Carlyle acquired communications infrastructure firm CommScope (CTV) for $3.9 billion on Wednesday.
IBM, Oracle, Hewlett Packard and Intel have been on a buying spree of late, and it's virtually guaranteed that they'll be purchasing more companies over the next several months. But which companies will they target next? Here are eight strong possibilities you might want to buy into.
This week marks the second anniversary of an event that shook the financial industry to its core. In her newly released book, The Weekend that Changed Wall Street, CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo gives an insider's look at the fateful days surrounding the fall of Lehman Brothers.
Airgas' board of directors unanimously rejected an increased bid of $65.50 a share from larger competitor Air Products & Chemicals.
Drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb plans to buy ZymoGenetics, its partner in developing a hepatitis C treatment, for $885 million. The move is part of a trend of pharmaceutical acquisitions as several big patents face expiration soon.
